{"id":2359,"date":"2016-08-24T08:19:57","date_gmt":"2016-08-24T16:19:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.tavbooks.com\/?p=2359"},"modified":"2017-04-05T20:29:06","modified_gmt":"2017-04-06T04:29:06","slug":"welcome-to-the-biennial-reference-book-workshop-with-tavistock-books-for-all-you-lazies-who-didnt-sign-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.tavbooks.com\/?p=2359","title":{"rendered":"Welcome to the Biennial Reference Book Workshop with Tavistock Books (For All You Lazies Who Didn’t Sign Up)"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Vic Zoschak and Margueritte Peterson<\/p>\n

1. Hooray! Another Reference Book Workshop! Who attended and how was the vibe of the event in your eyes?<\/span><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

This was like the 11th or 12th I\u2019ve hosted this workshop since the first in 2001.\u00a0 Due to space constraints, I limit registration to 7, which was attained this year shortly after the announcement but relatively late cancellations dropped us to 4 folk that actually attended.\u00a0 Diane Black, Holly Chaffee, Zayda Delgado & David Guest.\u00a0 Zayda a librarian at the beginning of her career at UC Riverside; the other 3 individuals are booksellers with varying degrees of experience in the trade.\u00a0 This a typical mix of workshop attendees as the workshop is designed to help new[ish] booksellers who may not be familiar with the standard rare book bibliographies & references, but can also be useful to rare book librarians who need to know those works, as well as collectors just embarking on their collecting journey [though usually collectors have an interest in just one of the 4 subject areas].<\/span><\/p>\n

I think the day went ok…\u00a0 as I explain to all at the beginning of the workshop, it\u2019s designed to just be a survey, and exposure thereto, of those basic references in four primary subject areas [English & American Literature, Americana, Childrens & Early Printed Books] which one will need in the daily course of business as a generalist antiquarian shop.\u00a0 Which is to say, I know the divers volumes will begin to all \u2018run together\u2019 by the end of the first segment.\u00a0 The challenge for me, as host, is to somehow be able to ascribe some aspect of uniqueness to each & every one such that the volumes retain their individuality.<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019ll leave it to the participants to say how successful I was at that effort!<\/span><\/p>\n

2. How did this past Saturday differ from previous workshops?<\/span><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Not much different really\u2026\u00a0 people ask questions, different paths are taken during the course of the day, other areas are explored.\u00a0 Two of the individuals were from Nevada, so during the Americana section, I added a few Nevada refs that I thought they should know.\u00a0 One thing I did note\u2026 during breaks all 4 individuals were scouring the shelves of the shop, to a degree more detailed than I had noted in the past few workshops.\u00a0 True book people!<\/span><\/p>\n

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The lunch group at Alameda’s Katsu Sushi House!<\/p><\/div>\n

3. What is your favorite part of the day?<\/span><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Lunch!<\/span><\/p>\n

As you can imagine, I\u2019m the primary talker during the day, and it can be a bit draining\u2026\u00a0 so at lunch, which I host, it\u2019s a chance for the participants to chat with each other, with me, with Kate, and perhaps discuss other topics of interest, with those topics not necessarily being entirely relevant to the day’s subjects.\u00a0 While we do introductions at the beginning of the day, lunch a time where we have an opportunity to say more than \u201cHi, my name is \u2026. and I’m here to learn \u2026.\u201d.\u00a0 So I get to find out more about the folks that have joined me for the day, while listening, not necessarily talking.\u00a0 I find it relaxing & collegial.<\/span><\/p>\n

4. What is the most useful part of the workshop for newbies? Or, would you recommend this workshop for newbies, over, say, RBS or CalRBS?<\/span><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019m not sure I can point to a specific aspect as \u2018most useful\u2019, as that is determined by each attendee, and as such, can be different for each individual.\u00a0 I can say that when I hold up a certain reference book, and introduce it with \u201cThis reference book made me $5000\u201d the booksellers usually perk up & pay attention.<\/span><\/p>\n

Which segues into one aspect of the workshop I try to continually emphasis\u2026\u00a0 the web has lots of useful information available, but it has yet, in my experience, to supersede the reference book library.\u00a0 In my opinion, it still takes both to successfully run a generalist antiquarian business.<\/span><\/p>\n

While I wouldn\u2019t recommend this workshop \u2018over\u2019 RBS or CALRBS, it does have the advantage of being 1 day, vice 5, and the cost is minimal, e.g., there is no entry fee, as I give the class gratis.\u00a0 That said, I do tell people this the beginner version of Joel Silver\u2019s week long \u2018Reference Sources for Researching Rare Books\u2019, and I encourage them to attend his class [RBS L-25] if they found mine interesting and\/or useful.\u00a0 Tavistock Books even offers a scholarship* to his class.<\/span><\/p>\n

* here\u2019s a link to the RBS Class description: <http:\/\/rarebookschool.org\/courses\/library\/l25\/<\/a>><\/p>\n

**\u00a0 a link to info regarding the Tavistock Books Educational Scholarship to L-25 (scroll to the bottom): <http:\/\/rarebookschool.org\/admissions-awards\/scholarships\/<\/a>><\/span><\/p>\n

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5. Kate’s opinion – this was your first Reference Book Workshop, right? Was there anything that you learned that you didn’t already know, even having been working for Vic for the last year?\u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

This was indeed my first reference book workshop, of any kind, and I\u2019m glad I got to sit in on it. Despite the fact that I’ve had access to both Vic and his stellar reference library for over a year now, and am even in the process of inventorying that library, I learned plenty on Saturday. I haven\u2019t yet handled all of the kinds of material that would require using each of the references Vic discussed with the class, for one thing \u2014 as with any bookshop, certain kinds of books are more likely to come through the door than others \u2014 so some reference titles were entirely new to me. Also, the workshop offered a chance for me to think critically about some of the references I only had a glancing familiarity with, and about bibliographic research in general. For instance, does McKerrow\u2019s Dictionary of Printers & Booksellers, 1557 – 1650 cover instances of surreptitious publications? What exactly is the difference between Worldcat and OCLC? How can a bookseller research works by authors that might be un- or underrepresented in traditional \u201cdead white men\u201d bibliographies? And what makes a bibliography authoritative, anyway?<\/span><\/p>\n

Not all of my questions were answered, naturally, but many were, and I\u2019m happy to have food for thought. Plus, the attendees were great: interested and interesting people, and all, like me, simply trying to educate themselves about professional research materials and standards in the trade. So I can say, with absolute conviction, that it was the best reference book workshop I\u2019ve ever attended\/ eavesdropped on. And luckily for me, I get to pester the instructor any day I want from here on out . . .\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Closing remarks by V…<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Finally, this may have been my last workshop\u2026.\u00a0 they take a lot of energy, and I\u2019m not the spring chicken I used to be.\u00a0 Though on saying as much to Kate as we were cleaning up, she inquired, \u201cHow many times have you said that now?\u201d\u00a0 After a moment\u2019s reflection, I replied \u201cAfter each of the last 3.\u201d\u00a0 She just smiled.<\/span><\/p>\n

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